Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The Cosmic Vending Machine: Science & Christianity

This is an article I've been meaning to write for awhile and I think now is a good time. Lately, there has been an increasing debate regarding science & religion. Those in the scientific community look down on those whole dare to hold any sort of theistic belief while claiming to be a scientist and those in the theistic community (specifically Christianity) continue to make the claim that there is no conflict between science & Christianity. However, no traction has been gained on either side of the debate and some (like Richard Dawkins) don't believe there is a debate to be had. Shock of all shocks, I don't believe there is a debate to be had either. To be fair, Richard Dawkins believes that debating evolution with a creationist is a waste of time and yield validity to Creationism as something worth having a discussion about, that's not what I'm agreeing to and as a Creationist (in the sense that I believe God created The Earth, however I don't believe the Earth is 6,000 years old and quite frankly, I don't care how old it is) I disagree with Marco Evolution (which is the dominate form of Evolution most Evolutionists hold to).

I think the problem between science & Christianity is the fact that I think both camps are talking past each other. The expression "talking past each other" and for some reason or another fail to solidify what we're talking about and worst yet, how to talk about it. I'm not saying I have a solution to this problem but I think I'm pretty close and I think in this post I can bridge the apparent gap between science & Christianity once and for all. It's been said that those who hold to some theistic belief can't be scientists and that the two are incompatible with each other. Not only am I going to prove that notion completely false, but I'm going to explain why Christianity aides in the scientific process. So get your thinking caps on and let's dive in.


Why did I post a picture of Vending Machines, you might be asking yourself. Well aside from the fact that this article is titled "The Cosmic Vending Machine" I have no other reason to post a picture of vending machines. But I'm using vending machine because they're a device we're all familiar with and have used or have seen used at least once in our lives. So what about the vending machine that makes it so central to this article? Well, The Vending Machine, like everything else (yourself included) is a system. A system designed to operate a specific way. Now suppose there's a Man who was standing in awe of The Vending Machine, this man is completely perplexed by this large box buxom with goodies and terribly hungry; the only problem is this poor guy has no clue how to operate it. The Scientist & The Christian make the Man's acquaintance to explain what this thing is and how to operate it, and thus we begin.

THE SCIENTIST:
This is a Vending Machine, in order to operate this device you must first insert the monetary value of the item you desire in the slot designated for currency. Once that's done, you can use the key pad located below the currency slot to type in the address of your desired item. Once that's completed, your item will be released and dispensed below. Should you have paid more than the monetary value of said item, change will be dispensed in the area designated for change. And that's how the Vending Machine operates.

The Man is astonished, but following The Scientists instructions he manages to obtain a bag of potato chips, he thanks The Scientist for telling him how to operate the vending machine, but now his question goes even further.

THE MAN:
How does it work?

THE SCIENTIST:
The Vending Machine is composed of circuits and wires and other thing of the sort. There is a scanner inside the money slot which reads the code of the money your insert. A series of tabulation devices respond to that code and are able to obtain the value of the money you inserted, which is how the machine is aware you inserted the correct amount. Once the correct amount is inserted the machine is activated. The keypad sends signals that is wired to receivers, the receivers are wired to a series of gears and pullys that are connected to the coils inside the machine. When you press the buttons on the keypad for the item you desire, those specific keys activate a specific signal for a specific receiver which activates that specific coil. The coil is then rotated and your item is released and dispensed below for your enjoyment.

Once again The Man is amazed at such an amazing machine. He shares his potato chips with The Scientist but now his question about the vending machines goes even deeper.

THE MAN:
How did it get here?

THE CHRISTIAN:
Well, there was a guy in a room somewhere with a sheet of paper and a pencil who drew this thing out and decided that the vending machine should be rectangular, and decided where the keypad should go and where the money slot should be and so on so forth. Then that guy gave those papers to another group of people, engineers and electricians who studied the blueprint and then gathered a bunch of cooper wires and glass and metal to actually build this thing. Then those people passed the vending machine along to a group of testers who operated the machine to see if it functions properly. Once it passed the test, it's passed off to a vending company where a group of people decided on contracts in regards to what food items the machine will carry. Once that's settled more people settle on a contract on where the vending machine will go. Once they come to an agreement, the vending machine is then placed in a vehicle and driven to it's new location, fully stocked with food items and ready to be used, and that's how it got here.

The Man stares at The Christian in complete confusion, he looks over at The Scientist and The Scientist nods his head, affirming what The Christian said. The Man looks around:

THE MAN:
How do you know that? You can't prove any of that.

THE CHRISTIAN:
I know that from a few things. For starters, look at the money slot, obviously the money slot is designed specifically for our currency. That means whoever designed this is aware of what form of currency we use. Look at the keypad, that keypad also proves that the designer is aware of our alphabet and the way we arrange numbers. Look at the items inside the vending machine, as you can see the items are given a specific alphabetical and numerical address which means whoever designed this had some sort of organizational ability as well as the ability to communicate coherent information, which means they're intelligent. Note the dispenser below, you can't stick your arm up there and grab your desired item because there's guarding that keep you from reaching upward. Clearly the designer of this machine knew someone would attempt to steal the items if they could. Look at the items inside the machine again, this machine doesn't have the capacity to produce and bag it's own food, so obviously there has to be some sort of food company to stock those items inside the machine. And look at the way they're arranged, all the potato chips are in a single file line and they're all the same kind. Clearly some intelligence was behind arranging those potato chips in a certain way so that that specific address would yield the same result each and every time. I could go on, but clearly a large amount of intelligence is behind this vending machine.

THE SCIENTIST:
Very true, actually, we know intelligence is behind this because we can clearly see how the system is supposed to operate. When the system is damaged or not functioning properly we're immediately aware of it because the information communicated to us through these obvious signs of intelligence let us know.

THE MAN:
Such as?

THE SCIENTIST:
Well say for instance you pressed the button for Potato Chips but the wrong coil responded and The Cookies were released instead. Well because of the information communicated to us by the keypad & the alphabetical and numerical address we can clearly see the item released was not the item you requested. Therefore, we know that somewhere inside the machine some signals are being crossed or a receiver isn't functioning the way it should.

THE CHRISTIAN:
This is because whoever designed this machine, designed it in a way so that if we understood basic sequential language, we'd be able to identify the problem. Then we'd have to call a person and inform them that the machine isn't working right and they'd come and fix it.

I'll stop with the play and get to the point. The Universe, just like The Vending Machine is a system made to operate a certain way. Science can explain how the system is supposed to operate and it should explain how the system operates, after all it's how we've got such things at metrology and biology and chemistry and so on. All of these things came from the very basic understanding that The Universe is SUPPOSED to function a certain way. Human Beings are not SUPPOSED to have cancer, we're SUPPOSED to be able to have bowel movements, we're SUPPOSED to be able to see 20/20, we're SUPPOSED to have two arms and two legs, we're SUPPOSED to have & do a lot of things ACCORDING TO A DESIGN! A Blueprint, something that outlined what human beings are SUPPOSED to be able to do and be. Because of this design, this blueprint, we're immediately able to know when something isn't how it's SUPPOSED to be.

As a Christian, I acknowledge my own intelligence and therefore, I can safely assume that my progenitors have the same abilities or the capacity for those abilities as I do. Because you can read this blog you are immediately aware that an intelligent person who's able to communicate with you wrote this blog. Science telling us that we are composed of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, chlorine, calcium, potassium, iron and so on doesn't negate The Imago Dei (image of God) within us all. After all The Bible tells us in Genesis 2:7 that God made Man from "the dust of the earth". Is it any surprise that we find common elements on Earth within ourselves? Of course, God will make us using common elements, He gave us bodies we could understand and repair. God didn't create us out of magic fairly dust and give us an inconsistent universe full of mysteries. He gave us a universe we could predict, a land we could master, beasts we could tame, language for us to communicate, and wisdom to understand it.

 Just like The Vending Machine, I can understand the circuitry and wires inside the system that I can see, but I can also understand the one who designed it, the ones who built it and the ones who stocked it that I can't see. Because of the information communicated to me, I can infer that there is intelligence behind it. The same way I infer (and many others) that there is intelligence behind this Universe. Science can tell us What & How,When & Why (and it should tell us all these things) but can't tell us Who, and personally, I believe The God of The Bible, The Christian God is the ONLY God who's able to set up such an amazing and consistent system as our universe. I'll leave you with that before I dig myself into a hole. Thanks for reading, peace in Christ.

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